Phone only allowing known numbers?

[SuperSange]

Hiya, We're (DH and I) are trying to mke things more secure for his elderly parents. MIL has dementia and FIL is very infirm and last week was nearly scammed out of £500 over the phone. We've asked many, many times that he just puts the phone down on people if he doesn't know them, or if he doesn't recognise the number, but that's rude according to him, so here we are.

We've managed to get a flag on his bank account for vunerability and I wondered if anyone could recommend a phone which will block all calls except the numbers in the phonebook? He's on TPS and his provider's call blocking, but they're still getting through. Do such phones exist, whereby if I programme all of their freinds/family in, no other number can call them? If this exists, can anyone please recommend a phone to me? We'd be very grateful, thank you.

Here’s one .. you’ll need to programme ‘good’ numbers in so that they get through, unknown numbers get asked to say who they are, which is often enough to make them give up. You can also completely block numbers.

https://store.ee.co.uk/products/bt4000-advanced-nuisance-call-blocker---twin-069265-8TC3.html?ql=7B0J-7B0P-8TC0-8TC3-B02K-B02M-BY4H-BY4J-BY4K-D93J-D93L-D93M-D93N-D93R-D93T-D93X-D9R5-D9R6-D9R7-D9R8-D9R9-D9RB-FK7W-FK7X-G4Z9-G6D2-G6D3-G9YX-GB1L-GMBY-GMC0-GMC1-GMC2-H3N9-H9HZ&src=3

That's the one we have @Snowflake760 , it's excellent.

If you want a mobile, iPhones can be set up like this. My midwife thought I’d blocked her, I’d accidentally switched it on and didn’t have her saved as I recognise the number.

Thank you all so much. I'll investigate the model mentioned and will probably buy it. He doesn't seem to get the calls on his mobile, just the landline. Let's hope it stays that way.

Good idea. But please bear in mind that NHS professionals may call from a withheld number so if they have a lot of contact from nhs it might make it difficult. I call from an nhs number and sometimes its really hard to contact patients with a call blocker. I try and go the extra mile and will call from mobile rather than land line but lots of services won't have capacity to do this.

I was just coming in to say this. About 6 years ago we had the same issue with PILs (now both deceased) who had a long chat with someone about buying diamonds, nearly bought an orthopaedic mattress - very close shave on that one!, arranged a kitchen fitting appointment etc. However, only allowing calls from known numbers threw up a whole host of new problems as both had health issues and ongoing treatment and all hospital calls and NHS numbers were withheld.

Some Trading Standards can supply them. PIL have it. Unknown numbers can still leave a voicemail message.

I've just bought that for my parents. Not for call-blocking as their service seems to do that successfully anyway, and they are delighted with it. Lovely big buttons and clear display.

Have bought that one for my parents. Callers can still leave a message on the answering phone and it has a big red flashing light when there’s a message.
However, I’ve found my Dad can’t use it to call home if he himself is out. For instance, he went out the other day and couldn’t get his usual taxi back, had to walk uphill which took him ages. He knew my Mum would be worried and he had his mobile but when he tried to call her he couldn’t figure out the call blocking. (You just have to say your name and press hash, which I doubt he can do - he fumbles with buttons). Not sure what to do about that…